What inspired Renaissance artists? According to a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was the Islamic world. Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797 showcases works that borrowed from the eastern traditions. Blake Gopnik of the Washington Post has the story.

"When the prophet Muhammad died in 632, a tempest of political intrigue and deceit blew over Islam, transforming it forever. In this fast-paced and compelling tale, travel writer Rogerson (author of The Prophet Mohammad) conducts us on a fascinating journey back to seventh-century Medina and the various schemes that led to the division of Islam into Shia and Sunni factions."

From March 31 until October 28, 2007, the Art Institute of Chicago will present Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, a collection of medieval Islamic ceramics dating from the 9th-15th centuries.

A team of French archaeologists have discovered three towns in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia which they believe are part of the "lost" Islamic kingdom of Shoa. The Muslim stronghold was an important stop on the trade route from the 10th to the 16th centuries.

On Saturday April 7, 2007, Oxford University scholar Jeremy Johns will present a lecture on the Alhambra, the "best preserved palace of the medieval Islamic world," in the Meyer Auditorium of the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Muazzez Ilmiye Cig's research into ancient Sumer led her to the conclusion that headscarves were worn in that culture's sexual rites. But when she made this claim in her book, the 92-year-old archaeologist found herself in court accused of insulting Muslim women.

The Library of Congress has published a collection of 355 sheets of Arabic calligraphy from the 9th-19th centuries on its website. The site features digital reproductions of the manuscripts along with background material.

Two scholars discuss a historic flashpoint and its relevance today. Antonia Ryan conducted an e-mail exchange with two scholars of the Crusades -- one who writes about Christian perspectives and one who studies the Muslim experience of these medieval wars.

The weekend before Atenveldt and Gleann Abhann’s coronations, the first-ever international exhibition devoted to imperial Turkish robes, or kaftans, dating to the 16th-17th centuries, opened at the Smithsonian Institute’s Sackler Gallery.

On November 6-7, 2005, the History Channel will present The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross, a "clear-eyed look at the first three crusades, the battle between the Crescent and the Cross, which still shapes the Middle East and relations between the two great religions in our present day world."

Moroccan archaeologists from the National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage are combing through research discovered during a recent excavation of the Roman city of Thamusida and its medieval layers up to Islamic times.